Also included are flat transfers from the original master tape source in 24bit / 192khz resolution, and a needle-drop of an original UK vinyl A1/B1 pressing transferred in 24bit / 96khz audio. On Drama, Horn had simply attempted to emulate Jon Anderson, but by the time he produced 1983's 90125 for the (yet again) newly reformed and reconfigured Yes, he had become the synth-pop genius behind ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Zang Tuum Tumb label, and gets no small share of credit for reinventing Yes as a hit 80s pop band. However, even as streamlined song-lengths and a couple of attempts at pop crossover appeared, the band sounded desperate rather than invigorated. Yet you don't lose "that sound" that makes the album distinctive and different from any Yes album before or after. The title track, with Howe's great steel-guitar opening riff, did indeed reveal a band that still knew how to rock even if lyrics like, "Get the idea cross around the track, underneath the flank of a thoroughbred racing chaser," exposed their hippie-mystic trappings. I emphasize the word "perform" because one gets the distinct sense that there was some serious effort put into getting great takes of these ridiculously complex and wonderful jams. The extensive drum and horn samples on "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and the glowing a capella on "Leave It" turned those songs into radio hits; but just when you think they've sold out, they write elaborate pop songs like "It Can Happen" or characteristically bizarre lyrics like, "This world I like/ We architects of life," or, "Your heart is inside your head." For all intents and purposes, the band that tours now is something of a traveling history lesson, so it'll be interesting to see how hindsight treats them in another twenty or so years, when they've finally hung it up and rested on their laurels. For starters, longtime fans weren't fooled for a minute by Horn's vocals, which didn't quite hit those high notes as easily as Anderson. Avoiding the temptation of crazy ping-ponging things around the speakers (and there had to be that temptation when remixing this album), producer Wilson chooses his surround treatments wisely, punctuating the mix usually with Steve Howe's guitar, Moraz's synths and some room ambiance -- and of course, Jon Anderson's passionate, angelic vocals. I'd go into more detail on those, but frankly, there is other stuff I have to cover here, so I'll just tease you with the assurance that it is a tasteful and fun mix. With Anderson's and Wakemen's defections, Yes recognized that they could no longer continue in the same lackluster manner as on Tormato. At the end of the 1970s, the band finally felt ready to embrace a new era. For now, don't surround yourself with yourself and move on back a square. "The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun)" is the most promising, opening with what should be an exhilarating passage of rushing keyboards topped by a blistering solo from Howe, but new drummer Alan White can't keep up the intensity like Bruford (by then defected to King Crimson) had, and it collapses under its own weight. The title track dominates all of side one of the original LP, rushing in with a burbling, dissonant intro, Howe's jagged riffing and Wakeman's fluttering fingers building a dense, overpowering texture. Fans have already been loving the first two multi-channel remixes, and now Relayer is the next in line! I can only imagine what a bear Relayer must have been to remix and reinvent.
Back to the sound quality, I have to reiterate my surprise of just how many elements of the sound that I thought were LP anomalies -- distortions, a certain sonic boxiness, etc. Relayer is the seventh studio album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released in November 1974 on Atlantic Records. These new mixes are featured on the CD, while the Blu-ray contains both stereo and 5.1 LPCM and DTS-HD Master Audio 24bit / 96khz mixes. Someone once told me that this is what they should have blasted at Noriega to drive him out of that nunnery; casual listeners turned their backs on this mess, while fans that could appreciate its dissonant, virtuosic extremes hid under their headphones and just kept basking. This sort of thrill ride continues on "Sound Chaser" and "To Be Over" (i.e., side two of the original LP). There is simply too many amazing surprises to the multi-channel mix to tell here, what is important is everything is more defined and cleaner,. After an extended hiatus following Relayer, Yes regrouped for 1977's Going for the One, bringing grand old ham Wakeman back to record an album of much fewer pretensions than anything they'd done since Fragile.
Oh right: it was Anderson, and he left right after this record. Particularly, considering the sound of bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, both of whom are so tightly locked-in (featured in the the front channels predominantly), I suspect they likely played in the same room all together allowing for a fair amount of natural ambiance to occur between the players, capturing the sound of the studio along with them. That leaves "Siberian Khatru" to close out the album with nine minutes of hook-stuffed organ and guitar interplay, understated harmony vocals and more of Squire's chunky, front-and-center bass playing. This album showcases Yes at their most concise, and is probably the best starting point. The band recreates the battle in a jaw-droppingly over-the-top instrumental that fades into a longing, eerie finale. Despite the fact that a formidable portion of the music we love (anyone from Radiohead and Super Furry Animals to Hella) is directly influenced by Yes and their prog-rock peers, we tend to look at the early 70s through punk's distorting lens, and that lens shows us images of dinosaur muso wankers lumbering from stadium to stadium with comically oversized light shows and Victorian clothing (never mind that punk itself became a mill of convention and spectacle in only a few short years). It was exactly this type of excess that had fans saying "no" to Yes for the first time in their career.
"Heart of the Sunrise" still holds up as a deftly constructed proto math-rock epic, and Jon Anderson would never sing a lyric as plainly as "I feel lost in the city" again. Anderson's lyrics (supposedly based on Japanese "shastrick" scriptures, wtf?) Yes may have disappeared commercially after 90125, but they're still active today in varying lineups, and have a full nine subsequent studio albums that Rhino has wisely chosen not to reissue. Of course, this lineup would disband shortly after the record, but lessons were learned and the next time Yes graced the world with an album, the world listened. Also, songs like "White Car" and "Into the Lens" just didn't sound like Yes, rather like Yes-influenced, overblown AOR fare. Like the first two Blu-ray deluxe reissues, Relayer comes in a gatefold mini vinyl replica with booklet featuring new sleeve notes by Sid Smith. Native support for MQA, DSD 64 - 512, and PCM file formatsA solid piece of audio technology that is music to year ears. There is so much stuff on this one disc! Genesis, ELP, and King Crimson were the others, and listening back to them, it's easy to see why Yes won out.
and especially the new-wave-meets-prog of "Tempus Fugit" were better than anything the band had done in years and, doubtlessly due to the Buggle-presence, sparkled with state-of-the-art production sheen. For more information about AudiophileReview.com including our Advertising Rate Card, Advertising Specs, Contact Information and our Privacy Policy - click here. Well, for sure you get all the bonus tracks that were on the 2003 reissue/remasters (in higher resolution). Howe also shows off his acoustic chops on "The Clap", a rollicking rag that bears little resemblance to anything else in the band's catalog (the original album version was a live recording, the reissue also appends a slightly crisper studio version). After all, Relayer is such a wild-ride of a recording, I perhaps wrongly just assumed -- especially as I grew to understand these things a bit, technically -- that a fair amount of compression would be necessary to keep the average teenager's record player back in the day from jumping out of the grooves. However, in spite of the flashy musicianship that made Relayer a fan-favorite, the record is all but unlistenable to the rest of the world. So what else do you get on this nifty Blu-ray Disc beyond the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround, in 96 kHz / 24-bit resolution, mixed from the original multichannel recordings? 2011 - 2020 That's followed by "Soundchaser", a vomit stew of jarring rhythms and bastardized funk climaxing with Anderson's infamous "cha cha cha" section. Now, I know some of you will want to know if the 5.1 mix will replace the stereo mix as definitive. Even that annoying tape hiss at the end of each song is gone. After an extended hiatus following Relayer, Yes regrouped for 1977's Going for the One, bringing grand old ham Wakeman back to record an album of … © Wilson's re-mixes have given an entirely new life to these recordings. With guitarist Steve Howe on board for the first time, it also established the classic Yes sound, where essentially any instrument could take the lead at any time. So kudos must be bestowed on prog rock meister-mixer Steven Wilson who helmed this reissue (as he has done with several other Yes releases as well as legendary titles by Jethro Tull, King Crimson, ELP and his own band, Porcupine Tree).
Please see our Privacy Policy. Feel free to forgo the band's first two albums with guitarist Peter Banks (we did), records that feature a band still finding its feet and occasionally hitting on something great, like "Astral Traveler", but often stumbling. Guitars and keyboards fall to the rear channels allowing for alternate parts to rise from the fronts while the drums, bass, and vocals hold solid ground up front. Yes - Relayer - Bluray 5.1 surround review Details Written by Wesley Derbyshire Published: 07 September 2014 Yes has really pumped it up with their tours and reissues. Even Wakeman was so disgusted that he quit after the album's completion.
Their egos? The intriguing middle section of "South Side of the Sky" might've blown up like a laser light show had they recorded it in the late 70s, and even though the band had a knack for crescendos and flighty, eagle-centric lyrics, they were more likely to get high through chugging guitars and Bruford's precise drumwork than outright bombast. However, "Machine Messiah", "Does It Really Happen?" Gone are the shrilly edges with the lows filling out the bottom on what had been a heavily mid-range leaning mix before-hand. With the many layers to work with, a enriching 5.1 mix opens Relayer to an avalanche of aural excitement. Most importantly, the title track has a sense of coherent progression, tension and release that most of the band's other side-filling epics lack. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own. Now in this new surround mix you can hear all the details of Relayer in fascinating clarity.